Partners
by claihm solais
Summary: RahXephon - One shot. What if Haruka had a partner in Operation Overlord? [Prequel: The Man in the Mirror]


Partners

A RahXephon fanfiction story

By Patrick Huu

Summary: One shot. What if Haruka had a partner in Operation Overlord? [Prequel: "The Man in the Mirror"]

Partners

            The skies of Tokyo Jupiter were black at night, illuminated only by the myriad lights of the skyline. This night was no different from other nights, but tonight, a clock outside Tokyo was running down. Time was running out.

            Outside the barrier that separated Tokyo Jupiter from the rest of the world, the sun shone down as it dawned on the planet. The sea glittered in the bright orange rays, reflecting the silhouette of a vessel floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Lylia Lidvyak was painted on the curved hull of its bow. A timer reached zero.

            "Commence Operation Overlord." The single command resonated through the bridge of the aircraft carrier and through the intercoms. The idle aircraft that had been sitting on its flight deck roared to life. Catapult alarms sounded, and the fighters were launched into the sky, blasting off the deck of the Lylia Lidvyak. The six exhaust trails slowly disappeared as the craft pulled away from their mothership and towards the giant red sphere that contained Tokyo.

"Readying TDD. Initializing phase one. Synchronizer running. Counting down to time

synchronization." Captain Shitou Haruka glanced out her cockpit window to her wingman. Tom Riatavin gave her a thumbs-up through the cockpit window. She smiled. The young man – actually, he was three years older than she was – had been eager to go on this mission. Like her, he had grown up in Tokyo before it had been sealed off by the MU. He had been her partner ever since…since she had joined TERRA, actually, she mused.

            Then the time for contemplating the past was gone, and the fighter unit warped through the absolute barrier that surrounded Tokyo Jupiter.

            Tom smiled to himself as he shot a glance at his partner from the TERRA Intelligence division. He leaned back in his seat as the TDD engaged, taking him back to his home. It had been 15 years since Tokyo had been sealed off by the MU…but  it was still home. Home for him…Haruka, his friend…and their target. Kamina Ayato. Age: 17. According to his time, only three years had passed since the MU had erected the barrier.

            He sighed as he remembered what Haruka had told him about Ayato…and her special relationship with him. She was in love with him, even after fifteen years. In love with the boy she had dated back when she was just fourteen. Tom smiled a little sadly. He had been trying to live up to her for years. Yet…in the end, everything he tried to be, everything he wanted to be for _her_ sake…just wasn't him. So they both had decided to remain friends, although sometimes he wished he had been the one she had fallen in love with.

            The beep of his TDD drive shook him out of his reverie. They were warping back into Tokyo airspace. He straightened in his seat. Well, it was still good to get home.

            They were greeted by a hailstorm of gunfire from the Tokyo defense force, flying antique F-311 interceptor fighters. "Escorts Alpha, intercept!" Elvy's voice came over the comm. The four fighters broke formation, leaving the two Intel VTOL craft behind in their cover of ECM. Haruka scanned the sensor board. "We got our target location. Move to insertion point." She directed her craft down and towards the finer residential districts of Tokyo.

            Neither of them noticed the wingpair of military aircraft that had veered off from the main combat zone and were tracking them.

            "Disengage ECM. We're going in," Haruka announced. Before either of them could react, though, fire rained from the sky. She swore and banked her craft hard to port, trying to evade the fire. It was then she noticed the wingpair that had snuck up on them. The old interceptors were no match for their newer craft, but having been taken by surprise, and having them on their tail already proved to be a huge disadvantage.

            "Haruka-san! Break off, port at three-one-one, now!" The voice of her wingman came over the comm. "'k," she told him and banked her craft to the side again. The fighter on her trail went after her, sending streams of machine gun fire after her. The craft shuddered a little, then was pushed forward as the interceptor behind her exploded.

            The twin Intel craft scissored around the last interceptor, then turned around and returned fire. The hostile plane dissolved in a shower of sparks. "All clear," she heard Tom's voice. "Ok. Let's get back to landing. They know we're here already." She grabbed hold of the control yoke when her craft started to shudder and resonate. A melody started to penetrate into her cockpit.

            "D-1 aria! Shimatta!" Tom swore. He glanced around trying to make out the shape of the Dolem when it appeared straight in front of them. It started to glow and emit a sound-resonance wave, aimed straight at Shitou's fighter plane. "Kuso!" He angled his own craft and hit the afterburners. "Haruka! Get out of there! Haruka!"

            The shockwave froze the plane in mid-air and ate away at the hull's integrity. Already she could hear the hull shrieking in protest under the unnatural strain. She wrestled with her yoke. Suddenly, it started to move again, and her craft tumbled free of the Dolem's grip. When she looked up for the reason she saw another plane has interpositioned itself between her and the Dolem. Tom's plane.

            "Haruka, get out of here! I'll take care of the Dolem…you need to get Kamina-san. Go already!" She could see the strain the resonance wave took on his plane as the hull began to deform. "Haruka-chan! _Go_ already! I'll be fine!" She averted her eyes. _The mission first. I…I have to get Ayato-kun._ She pulled back on the yoke and hauled her craft away from the Dolem.

            Tom grimaced. "You want me? Come and get me!" He activated the TDD drive mounted on the plane and hit the afterburners, setting his engines to full overload. His plane accelerated against the Dolem's resonance wave, breaking apart piece by piece, but still moving towards it's target.

            _I got to see home again…and Haruka gets to see her love again. Not bad for a day's work,_ Tom mused. _She's worth it._ He'd do it again, every day. He was her partner, after all.

            Haruka glanced at the rear display and saw something explode at the Dolem, creating a dazzling display of flame and sparks. The Dolem bulged and convulsed in its death throes, then finally disintegrated. Haruka closed her eyes and rested her head back against her seat. "Arigato, Tom-kun," she whispered. _Thank you for giving me this chance…_He knew how important this was to her.

He was her partner, after all.


End file.
